At the Ottoman Bank Museum
Memory and Ecumenicity in the Orthodox Millet (19th- 20th c.)

The series of monthly seminars, Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean, organized by the Ottoman Bank Museum in collaboration with Alpha Bank and the History Department of Bogazici University will be hosting Dr. Dimitrios Stamatopoulos from the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies at the University of Macedonia, this month, with a presentation titled "Byzance après Nation: Memory and Ecumenicity in the Orthodox Millet (19th - 20th c.)." The seminar will be held on Friday, February 10, at 5:00 pm.

In opposition to interpretations which deal either with the concept of ecumenicity independently from its historical context or equate it with variants of Greek nationalism, Stamatopoulos will propose a model approaching the topic both within the political framework of the Tanzimat reforms in the Ottoman Empire, and in relation to the major European ideological currents with which members of Istanbul's Greek Orthodox intellectual elite were conversant.

The monthly seminar series, "Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean," focuses on the Greek Orthodox population of the late Ottoman and early Republican periods. The seminars provide comprehensive insights into the topic and aim to raise awareness of the delicate historical context. Admission is free. Dr. Ilay Örs will be our next guest speaker at the seminar scheduled for Friday, March 24.

Economy and Society on Both Shores of the Aegean
Memory and Ecumenicity in the Orthodox Millet (19th- 20th c.),
Dimitrios Stamatopoulos

Dimitrios Stamatopoulos received his Ph.D. from the Aristotelion University of Thessaloniki in 1998. In 2001, he was a visiting fellow at Princeton University. Since 2000, he has taught history at the University of Macedonia, in the Department of Balkan, Slavic and Oriental Studies. He was appointed lecturer in Balkan and Late Ottoman history in the same department in 2003. His book, Reform and Secularization: Towards a Re-synthesis of the History of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 19th Century (Alexandria, Athens, 2003), deals with the influence of the Tanzimat reforms on internal political relations as well as on the functioning of the institution of the Patriarchate. His current interests focus on the relationship between religion and politics in the Balkans and more specifically on the process of secularization and the rise of civil society.

Friday, February 10, 2006 5:00 p.m. Free admission The Ottoman Bank Museum Bankalar (Voyvoda) Caddesi 35/37 (0212) 334 22 70